Being a business owner, I diary my holidays as I plan my year.I discovered that if I didn’t, work would easily swamp my time.

September 2019 Leadership Insights

Personal Note

I knew something was not right when overnight I received phone messages and texts alerting me to several unusual emails from my address.

My email address was fraudulently used.

Fortunately most of you rapidly recognised that these emails were not from me. There was no personal message, the language was clumsy, and I was requesting something that didn’t make sense. What was unnerving was that the email looked to be from my address. Some of you chose to inquire and discovered the next response was not credible.

My sincere apologies if you were inconvenienced with these emails. I am annoyed someone chose to interrupt my relationship with each of you.

Thank you to all of you who let me know what was happening, and to those of you who knew it wasn’t from me.

Be assured I won’t be asking you to do anything complicated in our business connection and any proposal I send will be on your invitation. Receiving a business proposal from me won’t be a surprise. I’m holidaying in Europe at present where email frauds are commonplace.

This September through October I am travelling to Venice, Sicily, and then Nice. I am a photographer and gorgeous vignettes are abundant, yet it is the delightful and helpful everyday transactions with the people here which has made this stay memorable.

Several experiences stand out as signs of progress.

We have travelled in brand-new planes, trains and buses and landed in spacious cool terminals. The priority of investment in upgrading shared transport infrastructure is evident.

Cars are minimal or disallowed in city centres making them people centred where it is easy to interact socially with others.

The architectural and engineering magic of 7th – 14th Century buildings, open places and lanes have survived, and remain elegant and well-used.

Everyday services; garbage collection, food collection and distribution, and building upgrades remain personalized. In Venice, we noticed households are allowed one small bag of garbage collected each day from their front door. Drinking fountains with potable water are every few blocks. Buildings provide shade throughout the day and building materials are transported by hand drawn carts and nimble portable external lifts.

What was also evident was that smoking remains popular and plastic is widely used. Tourism is a main source of income for many towns and cities.

One downside of this is the lack of business opportunity for those not wanting to be in retail, hospitality, travel or related services. I think that some things which create strong vibrant cities are the same in New Zealand as in many parts of the world; employment opportunities particularly for young people, and refugees, business innovations, people friendly urban areas and inexpensive, reliable intra and intercity travel.

How do we ensure our cities have vibrant attractive futures?

Alitalia magazine included plans for Milan’s future; reducing traffic flow to single lanes in central Milan, introduction of 4m wide paths for scooters, electric bikes and pedestrians, 40% of parking will be dedicated to electric cars, parking lots will facilitate deliveries to shops, smart lighting and signage systems, and green areas and piazzas that become pedestrian areas in specific hours and days of the week. The two main drivers are people reclaiming the city, and shared transport spaces.

What plans does your business include to remain responsive and relevant to the future? What strategic priority shifts are you choosing?

Realize that not having a particular ability is not a life sentence; it is a challenge to embrace.

Upcoming Workshops

Executive Presence

for Managers and Principal Advisors- November 2019
Do you want to increase your confidence, influence, impact with peers, senior leaders and Ministers? Then enrol in this programme. Hurry, there are two places left!

Executive Presence is a highly interactive course that provided me with very practical and pragmatic tools to improve my leadership. - Senior leader